The bread

I regularly made yeast bread for a few years early in our marriage when I was working from home part of the week and didn't yet have kids.  One day I stopped and I never picked it up again.  I still have my tattered copy of my beloved honey wheat bread recipe that I'd often make but when I decided to make bread again last week, it was with a much easier method.  So easy, in fact, that I was pretty skeptical about how it would turn out.  I found the recipe on Pinterest which made me doubly skeptical.

But, it was amazing!  I've thought about it since and I'm making myself refrain from making it every day because my big ol' belly (and big ol' everything else) doesn't need all that white flour-y goodness every day.  Even if bread intimidates you (and even if you're gone from the house a lot), you can make this.  You don't need to knead, punch it down, or attend to it hardly at all.  You just need an hour and a half or so on the day you're going to serve it to heat your oven and bake it.

The easiest bread ever (yields one round loaf)
from this post  (good photos of each step)

3 cups of flour
1 cup of water
3/4 teaspoon yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 T chopped rosemary and zest of one lemon (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water (and rosemary & lemon if you're using it) and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  

After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. 

On the blog where the original recipe is posted, she has other flavor combinations (rosemary & gruyere, sharp cheddar, etc).  It seems really versatile and you stir your additions in when you add the water.  Next time, I'd probably leave out the lemon and just go with the rosemary.  My friend was suggesting cranberry and orange or olive with the rosemary - yum!